A Doll for a Doll

I made some uber-cute fabric doll stuffies for my swap partner in a recent swap on Blythe Kingdom.  This idea could be used to make a "mini-me" for any toy, and it would surely delight a child to receive a mini-me of him- or herself!

The theme of the swap was "Dolls for our Dolls".  While browsing on Pinterest, I saw a picture of a Blythe holding a small copy of herself and I knew that was what I needed to do for this swap!  Read on to see how I did it.

First, I made two dresses that would be part of the swap package and put them on two of my dolls.  I photographed each doll, front and back, standing against a white background.  I wanted to put white hair on one mini doll (to match one big doll my partner has) but none of my Blythe's have white hair, so I put a white hat on Candy for the pictures.

On my computer, I edited and re-sized the photos until they would be right for the mini doll.  Then I printed the photos onto white fabric.  (I used commercially prepared fabric that was already stuck onto paper so it would feed into the printer easily, because I had that on hand.  Applying freezer paper to fabric yourself should work just as well.)

After peeling off the paper, I traced around the outline of the doll with pencil to mark my sewing line on the reverse side of the fabric .

All sewed!  I left an opening on top of her head for turning; the hair will be covering that up later.

Here she is, turned right-side out...

 ...and here she is stuffed and ready for hair.

I sewed the hair on by hand.  It was a learn-as-you-go process!  The one thing I was not happy with, was the way the white hat still shows around her neck.  If I did this again, I would use yarn to match the doll's actual hair color (as I did with the orange-haired Penny).

My favorite thing about these mini dolls is that they are complete on the back too!

I am very happy with how these mini dolls turned out, and my swap partner is thrilled with what I sent her! I wouldn't have tried this without the "push" the swap gave me.  That's what I like most about craft swaps!

Five Tiny Dresses and a New Blog

Now that the year is drawing to a close, and I have finished my 365 Sewn Hearts, several people have asked me, "What's next?"  I've been thinking and rethinking that; and the answer is...

 a new blog! 

 It will not be in the "365" format; at first I thought would do that again, but then I decided to be kind to myself and not add that pressure to my life!  Instead, this new blog will focus on my new love, Blythe dolls.  I will be able to ramble on about them in a separate place, so I don't bore my non-dolly readers--that's good for me and for you!  I expect to post there once or twice a week, while continuing to post here about more general sewing, crafts and art.  Blythes will still show up here occasionally, when I have made something for my dolls that fits the context of this blog...like sewing these dolly dresses, for example!

First, I proudly admit that my dolly family has grown to five.  I wanted them all to have a Christmas outfit, so using the pattern for the party dress at the Blythe site, Puchi Collective  I whipped out these five tiny dresses. My stash of Christmas fabrics is rather huge, so it wasn't hard to find some small-scale designs for this project. I decided to add a detail of some sort to each waist and hem...that was where things got a little tricky, because I didn't want to repeat any of the trims or ribbons. I've recently discovered a couple of shops on Etsy that specialize in extra-small notions which are perfect for doll clothes, so I will be doing more shopping there in the future!

Now, getting back to the new blog...it's called Blythe Happy. I invite you to take a look--I've started blogging there already.  If you aren't interested in dolls, you still might find something fun--for example, there are more pictures there from my walk through Colonial Williamsburg...I brought one of the Blythes with me and took pictures with her there, too.

 If by some chance I manage to "convert" a reader to Blythe--oh happy day!  I want to hear from you!

Cute Outfit

I didn't intend to sew another outfit for my Blythe doll, Bonnie, so soon; but when I was working on a dog-themed heart for my heart blog, inspiration struck--I had seen dolls with headbands with an ornament of some kind... and a flat heart is an ornament...and I have cute scottie-dog fabric that would be a good doll dress...and I could put a scottie dog on the heart...and it became something I HAD to make, quick!

The dress is made from the same pattern as the one in the previous post.  The pattern includes two pockets, but I decided to make it with just one heart-shaped pocket (I wonder what a dolly would carry in her pocket?  I always have a ChapStick and a tissue in mine!)

To make the scottie shape, I simply took a scrap of the fabric with the dog on it, placed it on the black felt, and cut around it with small, sharp scissors.  I sewed the finished heart onto paw-print ribbon, and voila!  A headband! 

It looks cute, but the ribbon doesn't stay on her head very well, and the paw prints are rubbing off from being handled.  I need to come up with something better the next time I make headgear for Bonnie.

Meet Bonnie Blythe

I'm excited about something new--it's a doll named Blythe.

I first noticed Blythe dolls on the swaps board on Craftster;  the doll owners were making and swapping clothes and accessories for their Blythes.  The clothes were really CUTE, and the accessories were FUN, and I wanted to make some too!  But first I needed a doll.

Takara, the company that makes Blythe, is in Japan, and they don't distribute the dolls in the U.S.  There is only one reliable Japanese store that sells them online--Junie Moon--but the prices there are pretty high.  The best place for me to get my doll was eBay.  I started watching all the Blythe listings obsessively, and reading all I could about collecting Blythe.  It turns out that there are a lot of fake Blythes on the market (made from inferior materials), so you have to be careful who you buy from.  Within a few days I saw the particular doll I wanted--"Raspberry Sorbet"--offered by a good seller in Hong Kong; and I didn't even have to play the bidding game, since she was offered as a "Buy it Now" purchase.

While waiting impatiently for her arrival, I continued reading about Blythe collecting.  There are Blythe blogs and online Blythe forums, and there is even a big Blythe convention taking place in Texas in August:  Blythecon 2012!  (Maybe I'll go next year?!) 
I also decided on a name for the doll:  Bonnie. 

Earlier this week, the mailman rang my doorbell, and I had to sign for the package.  I expected it to take two weeks or more, but she got here in about a week--wow!  The box was wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string, and it was strangely pristine--I've gotten local packages that look like they've been on a long sea voyage, but this didn't have a mark, dent or crease!  Removing the brown paper revealed a plain brown corrugated cardboard box, and inside that was the prize:

And here she is (below), right out of the box and wearing her full ensemble.

I love the hat, coat and boots she came with; but the shirt and shorts she's wearing needed to be ditched fast.  Time to sew an outfit--yay! 

There are a ton of sewing patterns for Blythe online, most notably at Puchi Collective. That's where I found the pattern for this empire waist dress (below).  This is the first time I've sewn doll clothes since I had a Barbie as a pre-teen!  I chose these fabric colors to compliment Bonnie's hair and eyes.  Did I mention that Blythe dolls have changeable eye colors?  They do!  Each doll has four different sets of eyes, and they change when you pull a string on the back of her head.  I'll get busy sewing something to go with each color to show you in the coming weeks.

You might have noticed that her head is "slightly" large in proportion to her body.  All the more reason to make cute hair accessories for her!  I'm dying to make some pretty headbands and fascinators.  She also needs a bed... and a chair...and a table...and a house... and a...

If anyone reading this is a Blythe owner, I'd love to hear about your girl!  Leave a comment below or send me an email (leslieandersen4@gmail.com).